The Education Of Mrs. Brimley is a sensational debut novel by Donna MacMeans.

Emma Heatherston flees London after she overhears her uncle's plans for her future. She runs to Yorkshire to be a teacher at The Pettibone School for Young Ladies. There Emma takes on a new role as widow Emma Brimley. Emma's first night she meets her neighbor the notorious Lord Nicholas Chambers.

Lord Nicholas Chambers likes his quiet peaceful life painting in the countryside. His first meeting of the Widow Brimley intrigues him. For a widow there is something innocent about Emma.

Emma is shocked to learn that besides literature she is to teach bedroom etiquette. Emma turns to Nicholas for help. But this help has a price. Nicholas makes a deal with Emma, he will answer all her questions if she poses for him.

What starts out as a test of wills turns into a love of a lifetime. But can Nicholas protect Emma when her Uncle finds out where she has been hiding?

The Education of Mrs. Brimley is a superb novel. It's witty, tender and passionate. The characters feel like old friends by the time you are finished. I am really looking forward to the next book by this author. ( )

I enjoyed this book. I read for entertainment, and this book fit the bill! Some of the other reviews I've read were not quite stellar. It is a light romance with engaging characters that you want to know further. Very charming. Am looking forward to more from author. Thanks Donna MacMeans for an enjoyable trip! ( )

Emma Brimley has gotten herself into hot water. To obtain a job teaching at a young ladies' academy, Emma claimed to be a widow. Only now she's expected to prepare the girls for their marital duties - something she knows absolutely nothing about. She sees no other choice but to turn to the school's roguish neighbor Lord Nicholas 'Bedchambers' Chambers.

Chambers is an artist in desperate search for a model to inspire a painting good enough to be accepted into the London Academy. So he strikes an unorthodox bargain with Mrs. Brimley - one truthful answer to her question per item of clothing she removes to pose for him. And Emma has a lot of questions.

I really enjoyed this novel. I have a soft spot for artists - whether poets, sculptors, or painters. So the descriptions of Chambers' painting and how he is inspired by Emma's transformation into a goddess really worked for me. I love stories where the heroine is a muse for the hero - and that definitely happens here.

I also enjoyed Mrs. Brimley's interactions with the girls at the school, although I thought those aspects were sadly neglected at times in order to focus more on the situation with Chambers. I had hoped for more scenes between the teacher and the girls under her charge - perhaps truly demonstrating how she becomes the girls' favorite teacher.

Despite some flaws, this story was fun and sexy. A good first effort, and I'll keep an eye out for more by this author.

Awful non-story. Stupid, empty, boring, waste of time and money. You can read the back flap of the book and know everything that awaits within: not much. It reminds me that I keep these lists so that I don't mistakenly buy this author again. ( )

Perched on her trunk, her nose numb, her toes paralyzed, the January cold burrowing bone deep, Emma Brimley huddled on an empty train platform agonizing over her decision to leave London for Yorkshire.

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Wikipedia in English

Emma Brimley pretends to be a widow to find employment at an all-girl's school. But when she's expected to teach the intimacies of marriage, she strikes a scandalous bargain with a neighboring artist-a man well-versed in bedroom etiquette.

As Emma Brimley, masquerading as a widow, starts her new post at the Pettibone School for Young Ladies, she is dismayed to learn that she is expected to prepare her students for the intimacies of marriage, of which she knows nothing about until she meets a neighboring artist.… (more)